DINING OUT

DINING OUT; Pizza, Pasta and a Children's Menu, Too

By PATRICIA BROOKS

Published: April 4, 1993

BART'S PARADISE CAFE may sound like a song title from the 1960's but the Greenwich restaurant, in a building that dates to the early part of the century, offers a menu that's mostly pizza and pasta and very much of the 90's.

In its most recent previous incarnation, Bart's was an Italian restaurant called Portofino, with dark wood walls, trim and wainscoting, a menu mostly of seafood and pasta dishes, and a trio of owners. Now there is one owner, Bart Destefano, and the interior has been repainted apple green, creating a lighter look.

The three dining rooms are small and cozy. Prettiest is the smoking room in front, with a large fieldstone fireplace facing a wood-paneled wall with leaded-glass window panes. On nights when there is entertainment in the bar, the glass panels are removed, adding a noisy, convivial atmosphere. The staff, as informally clad as in the Portofino days (shorts in early spring), are friendly and generally competent, with only a few lapses (such as once bringing entrees to the table while we were still eating our appetizers).

The chef, Stephen Horwath, survives from the Portofino era, and he continues to play to his strength, which is his winning way with pasta dishes. Wisely, these make up a major portion of the menu (16 items), with only 10 meat, chicken or fish entrees. There are also seven 10-inch pizzas, each of which is ample enough for an entree, along with, perhaps, a crisp Caesar salad, or for several people to share as a starter. Three of us, for instance, divided a nacho pizza -- dabs of chili, sliced jalapeno peppers, guacamole, crushed corn chips, sour cream, mild salsa and melted cheese spread over a chewy, thin pizza crust. It sounded bizarre but turned out to be delicious.

Other starters earned mixed reports. The appetizer of fried calamari was greaseless and crunchy, with a mildly spiced red dip, though all the squid legs (the best part, in our view) had been amputated. Sauteed fresh mozzarella, with roasted red peppers on top of the lightly breaded cheese, was too oily, though the cheese itself was tender and of sufficiently high quality to be served uncooked at room temperature. Chicken fingers were so gnarled and twisted that the ends were tough and inedible. The sharp honey mustard dip helped but not enough.

The only pasta dish that blew a fuse was manicotti siciliano, with thin slices of breaded eggplant wrapped around the ricotta-stuffed pasta in melted mozzarella and tomato sauce; unfortunately the pasta tubes had tough, curled edges and a left-over taste.

Smoked pork chops in a tarragon cream sauce studded with slivers of cooked apples had a welcome smoky flavor. Also satisfying was chicken dijon in a zesty scallion-mustardy cream sauce. At lunch, a sandwich called Katie's noblest (grilled chicken, smoked mozzarella, roasted peppers and dribbles of herbed extra virgin olive oil on an Italian roll) made a robustly satisfying dish.

Best of the limited dessert choices was a tollhouse cookie pie with a buttery, well-made crust. Banana cream pie, with a graham cracker crust and more whipped cream topping than pie, was also pleasing. The cannoli, remembered fondly from Portofino days, had the texture of cardboard, were stale and the ricotta filling too sweet by half.

A three-course dinner costs about $25 a person, less if one's entree choice is pizza, before tax, tip and drinks. There is a small wine list with American, French and Italian vintages, and a few good beer choices as well. A children's corner of the menu features five entrees of smaller portions and prices to match.